Kakizaki Memi / 1st Generation (Hinatazaka46)

More bis Memi, thanks to Yancharu Mei-chan. Photos taken off-camera during the photo-shoot and posted in Higashimura's blog. "This type of Memi is super-kawaii," says MeiMei.

With Memi continuing to leave a long time between blog posts, Suzuka-chan is also coming to the rescue. She says that people have been sitting on her lap a lot lately. On the day this last photo was taken, it was Memi. Memi looks so self-satisfied there. People say that of the 2gens, Memi is closest to Tomita, Hina-chan, Nao-chan, and Buu. And maybe now Konoka. I don't really know.

There will be a Kyouko-Memi Showroom Tuesday evening 9pm - 10pm (about 5 hours from now). I was waiting for Memi to have a Showroom in this Hiragana series, but Showroom is something she still lacks confidence about (mistakenly, it seems to me). In any case, Kyouko was kind and smart enough to invite her to join in a duo broadcast. I find this particularly interesting since Kyouko was deeply upset a year or so ago when Memi invaded her solo Showroom. But Memi seems to have changed a lot since then.

A few hours ago, I wrote: "I wonder if part of Kyouko's reason for inviting Memi is because she knows management is pushing Memi forward, and therefore that improving Memi's presence and ability in Showroom will help the group as a whole. In any case, I give great credit to Kyouko. Actually, I go so far as to wonder if they might make Memi centre on the second, no-MV, Hiragana song on Black Sheep; her personality is exploding on GanaOshi, and her singing in Magia Record was amazing (see video here). Then the "rival" predicted for May by the fortune-teller on GanaOshi might be Nao-chan, lol. Current speculation about the predicted rival ranges from Manamo to Buu to Nano-chan. But in any case, I don't believe in fortune-telling. Memi's going to have to make it on her own."

Memi has posted in Message about going out with Manafi on Monday. She posted on Sunday that she wanted "tapioca," then posted Monday afternoon a pic of the two of them drinking bubble tea (Takase has the very English Earl Grey, lol). A close inspection of the label on the cup shows that they were at a Gong Cha 貢茶 location at Ikspiari, a shopping, eating, and entertainment centre in the Tokyo Disney Resort. Gong Cha is a Taiwan-based bubble tea chain with numerous stores in Japan.

They both were great: funny and friendly with each other. They mentioned Dakishimete Yaru in passing, but without saying anything about Memi's role in it. Memi talked about making Valentine chocolates for "Yuri." (i.e, Yurina). When Memi talked about making chocolate macarons, Kyouko said she couldn't cook anything more complicated than instant ramen. Huge audience grew to over 50,000. The word "cute" was much in evidence in the comments. Memi was happiest when she could laugh at Kyouko a little bit, lol. Memi was asked to wink, but never did so right away and waited for the moment you were least expecting it.

They were both hungry (it was 9pm) and Memi said she had been studying right up to the time to come to the broadcast. She does not have university entrance exams, either because she's only in 2nd year or maybe because she's in a helicopter school where if she graduates, she can get straight into a particular university associated with the school. The two of them wished entrance-exam takers good luck.

I like Memi's friendly and amused expression here. Click for huge size. The cape makes her shoulders look even wider than they are, and the full-frontal view makes her face seem wider, too. I like her photos from a slight angle best. But I still like this. There's lots of praise for the new photos, but some people criticize the white background. I wonder if the original has a transparent background, for future ad use. One Japanese comment said the outfit looks like the wrapping-paper on high-class Western confectionery. Delicious, lol.

There's a theory that Memi knows what Hirate says at the entrance to the rooftop in the Black Sheep MV. That's based on the following clip from the Memi-Kyouko Showroom, where Memi holds her hands as if she is about to say it, then settles for saying, "I wonder what she said...," with a knowing smile.

I've watched the Showroom again, and Memi is fantastic. Just the sneaky-smart 17-year-old I expected the 14-year-old Memi to grow into. She made so many funny, dry comments -- like when they were talking about food and Kyouko said she doesn't like persimmon fruit (called "kaki" in Japanese). Memi points to herself, saying, "Kaki-zaki," with a droll smile. "Kakizaki" means "persimmon slope." It's the name of a river flowing in Niigata and Nagano prefectures and also the name of an old samurai family. The persimmon is a tree-fruit that looks like a cross between an apple and a tomato, and is soft and sweet when ripe.

Memi said that right up until the show started, she was studying Japanese, English, World History, and "Foundations of Biology" for school (2nd-year high school). She says she likes math and when she said her marks, Kyouko was shocked at how high they were. Kyouko said that she always thought people who liked math were amazingly smart. Memi said she was just average. Memi just about always had a conspiratorial smile, and kept looking at the audience as if sharing a joke.

In Sunday's GanaOshi, they paid tribute to Kasuga's 40th birthday by designing the show around the old cartoon character Kinnikuman ("Muscle-Man"). The members were asked to draw an alternative "-man" character. Memi drew "Twintail Strong-leg Super-man": a girl with long blonde curled twintails and a wide skirt. Memi said the twintails unwound and could grab people, and the skirt hid her brawny legs, with which she kicked them. Of course Memi would be aware she herself has big legs, but this is the first time I have seen her actually refer to them. Always good to convert a minus into a plus. Memi's strong legs are already a plus in dance and health, but they do give her a non-model line:

bis is doing good things for Memi. The pic posted by @Xiphyas is in a little piece about how to colour the area beneath your eyes to make your eyes look good whether you're looking up or down. On last week's Showroom, Kyouko praised the pic, but called it the "eye-bag photo." The technique emphasizes the puffy area beneath the eyes. Strange idea, but it seems to work on Memi.

On a Showroom a while ago, Memi told Manafi that she liked her hair its natural black colour, but might like to dye it white sometime. (I can't recall if she said white or silver, actually.)

EDIT: Just saw this on Twitter. The author gives us the intro to a Techi-Memi fanfic (or manga):

Everything Memi does seems to make me even more of a fan. She was great on the SHOWROOM announcing the single and the name-change to Hinatazaka46. Competent and well-organized when she had to speak, so real and cute when she was reacting to others or just listening.

And then she was the only member (also Nao-chan, to some extent) not to sail off into demonstrations of delight when the name-change was announced. She was clearly shocked and went silent, seeming about to cry. It seemed that she was sad to lose the name Hiragana and to not be in the same group as her friends Yurina and Neru. But she said in an interview afterward that she was happy about it, that this meant they could distinguish themselves from Keyakizaka and be a big group themselves. So I think her reaction was more shock than sadness, although sadness must have been there, too. It was for me: three years of devoting herself to Hiragana Keyaki and now it's suddenly gone.

I became Memi's fan during her auditions because she seemed so transparent: you could see what she was feeling and she didn't (wasn't able to) fake anything. She has become much more professional and able to perform the right emotions, but she still seems comparatively open with her real feelings. Thank goodness.

A Memi fan in her 5ch thread speculated that Memi was so shocked because she knew she was centre on the single and now felt even more pressure, since it was to be the founding single of a whole new group. Pleasant speculation.

Here's the SHOWROOM:

As another post in her 5ch thread put it: "Beautiful tears."

EDIT: Memi actually wrote a comparatively long Message post just now, contradicting the article in Oricon News. She says they wrote that she said a name-change was her "dream," but in fact it was Kyouko saying that, and she didn't want people to get the wrong idea. I guess the whole paragraph quoting her was actually quoting Kyouko, who definitely was pleased. It sounds as if Memi may have been as unhappy about it as she looked. The thought of being happy to get rid of the "Keyakizaka" didn't sound like Memi to me.

This is how Memi looked after the announcement of the new name was made;

@sakutan -- The glasses were the most amazing part. If Memi came up with that idea herself, she's dangerous, lol.

I doubt Memi and Yurina will see much less of each other. They already work together hardly at all. I think they probably see each other either at school (if they still go to the same one) or by personal arrangement. I don't know what the groups' living arrangements are: probably separate apartments, rather than a dorm, and maybe not even in the same building.

I'm waiting for her to explain what bothered her most: I think it was probably losing the Keyaki name she had been loyal to for three years.

@ukifune memi seemed like she was one of the members that seem most fond of the keyaki name and bond. The model press pics I saw yesterday made me a bit sad cause how devastated she seemed at the announcement.

@sakutan -- Yes. A number of hours ago, Memi wrote another Message, saying that there were a number of surprising things in the announcement, and she expects all of us were surprised, too. But she is happy to be going independent and getting a single. To me, this suggests that what she is sorry about is exactly what you say: the name and the bond she feels through it. People on 5ch praise her for looking ahead rather than behind.

And now another even longer Message, explaining that she was shocked and didn't know what was happening, being told that after three years as Hiragana, from now on they would have a different name. It felt as if all the love she had for Hiragana, and the work they had done for it, was being thrown away. But she will work to understand the need for a new name, and to be able to say she is a proud member of Hinatazaka46. She says it is a cute name that represents the aura of the group perfectly. And she apologizes for making us all worry.

Memi's thread on 5channel is full of posts from fans declaring they will support her forever, saying they feel a strong urge to protect her, and wanting to tell her they love her. This photo is from after the SHOWROOM. Memi has already recovered somewhat.

Just before the name change was announced, when Kumi was opening the envelope, Memi seemed already worried what it might be. So she was ready for bad news, of the kind they got when the recruitment of a second generation was announced: the group felt then it was being told it wasn't good enough. This is the opposite: it is being told it is good enough, but Memi was probably getting a similar feeling to the previous time.

Memi, Paripi and Manafi do a video promo for the Laguna Festival in March. Video in the General thread. Manafi is Memi's best friend in the group, and Paripi may be her second-closest friend. The promo was recorded before the name-change.

This morning came a Keyaki Message from Memi saying she hadn't had time to make Valentine sweets but planned to do it in the next few days. The video message was completely dark. Either she mistakenly sent a video instead of an audio message, or she intentionally gave us the impression she was lying in bed. She ended the message saying she wondered if she should go to sleep. The 5ch Memi thread went wild over the way her voice sounded. (Y300 a month per member for Keyaki Message, plus Y120 to send a message to them.)

That first pic takes my breath away. I know I'm biased, but what a beautiful face. Especially with the hair high on her head. The feature explains how to use this style to make your face seem smaller. Here are the pics a more demanding judge decided not to post. Not designed for beauty, but conveying it. Judging by the slight fuzziness, probably cropped from larger images.

You leave a loose bit of bangs and make high twintails, just behind your ears. You twist them into loose buns and clip them, adjusting the size to have the desired effect of making your face look smaller. I'll translate the whole little piece in a blog post.

People on 5ch and Twitter are reporting how much (lack of) success they're having with their applications for Hinatazaka handshake places. Memi is in a top group where people are getting zero to half of what they ask for. Nao-chan lots of zeroes (i.e., sold out). Official results announced next Thursday, I believe.

It was great yesterday to see Manafi selling out a number of slots for Black Sheep handshake. She and Mao-chan each sold five slots, leaving only one slot each to fill out their 12. A rising tide (of group popularity) lifts all boats.

Oh! probably you misunderstood or maybe me. I have referred to the quality of the image resolution and invite all to visit the link. I will edit. Sorry, my bad english.

Click to expand...

Absolutely unnecessary. Your English was clear. I called you a "demanding judge" because you rejected the lower-quality photos. I meant that I was a poorer judge who just wanted to see all the photos. Your decision was a good one (and so was mine, lol). I guessed that the lower-quality photos were cropped from bigger photos. In fact, they may just have been taken with a worse camera, or photographed from a printed page.

A gif quickly made and posted on 5ch of a scene from the promo for next week's show. Memi's hands always elegant, today with "classy lady" from one hand and "pussycat" from the other:

And from Twitter comes a video bringing together reaction videos from on stage for the name-change announcement and back in the practice room where all the other members got the info at the same time. Memi was not the only one to cry. Miho seemed devastated, too, and others wept as well. Maybe all had different reasons, as the on-screen title claimed. The way Memi seemed to collapse onto her stool when she saw the news was heartbreaking:

Also a CM for Fortune Music, the company that manages ticket sales for handshake events: